"To Plock!" repeated Sieciechowa, in a piping voice.
"Look how things go! Is it as easy for you to go to Flock as to handle the sickle?"
"How can I and Sieciechowa return by ourselves? If I cannot continue my journey with you, it would have been preferable to have remained at home. Do you not think that Wilk and Cztan will be more obstinate in their intrigues against me?"
"Wilk will protect you against Cztan."
"I fear Wilk's protection as much as Cztan's open violence. I see that you too are opposing me; if it were only simple opposition I should not mind it, but not when it is in earnest."
Indeed Macko's opposition was not in earnest; on the contrary he preferred that Jagienka should accompany him, than return, so when he heard her words, he smiled and said:
"She has got rid of her petticoats, and now she wants reason too."
"Reason is only to be found in the head."
"But Plock is out of the way."
"The Bohemian said that it is not out of the way, but it is nearer to
Malborg."